Jennie Jones

He’s an eleven-month-old puppy weighing in around 40 kilos. He’s the best bitza around, to my mind: staghound mother, Rottweiler father and Labrador paternal grandfather (bits ‘a this and bits ‘a that).

He hasn’t grown up yet, mentally or physically, and his legs are so long he looks like he might trip over them as he runs, but the other evening he proved himself a worthy and protective companion at derring-do daughter’s side.

Brought up with derring-do since his birth at the stables where derring-do works (staghound mum moved in and had her litter of nine as Rotty dad down the country lane cocked his leg and wandered off to do something more interesting), Steve is well versed in horses (and how to avoid them), chasing rabbits over acres of fenced land, and mostly doing as he’s asked. He still hasn’t got the whole picture regarding kangaroos but one day he’ll realise they don’t want to play. They’ll fight back if tries to run with them and likely rip his throat out with a well-placed hefty back kick.

That’s Steve’s history to date. But the other night he had a first. Derring-do was filling her car with petrol, strangely proud that the four-wheel wonder, her first car bought with her own earned money, had just hit 300k on the clock-ometer and only required an oil change once a fortnight. 40 kilo puppy was in the back seat – his place – lounging on the worn vinyl and no doubt thanking his human mum for the horse & hay aroma in the interior which makes him feel so at home.Cue louts at another bowser who had just filled the tank of their loutmobile.

“Nice dog. What is it?” said lout boy #1. “Wouldn’t mind one,” said lout boy #2.“Not sure,” said derring-do, glancing at them and keeping her answers to a minimum. “He’s a rescue dog.” “I want one,” said lout woman who’d just got out of the loutmobile.

Yeah, right, thought derring-do.

All three stepped closer, and derring-do felt the claustrophobia of their intent to cause trouble. What kind, she didn’t know. Just pests wanting to pester and scare? Probably. Steve, the big pup who lets kids rumble with him, prefers most of the bed space to just his half and who gives derring-do a quick, soft bark if she sleeps through the alarm at dawn, started growling, and she didn’t tell him to stop.

She toyed with the pump, taking her time as she finished the job, giving them extra minutes to leave. They didn’t. The woman stepped closer to the car and Steve growled deeper. Derring-do pretended to fiddle with something in her car, pretended to look for her bag and her money. But they didn’t leave, so she went inside to pay for her fuel.

Fuel guy says, “Hey, isn’t that your dog?”

Derring-do drops everything – keys, bag, money – and runs outside. Lout woman has Steve by the collar and is dragging him across the bowsers to the loutmobile.

Steve knows something’s not right. This hasn’t happened to him before. Where’s my mum? All 40 kilos is resisting, but he’s not using his full strength because he’s too young to know that he can. He’s growling though, and nipping at lout woman’s hand and arm.

Derring-do runs towards them, calling Steve. Steve looks confused, but there’s his owner, and she doesn’t drag him like this. Plus, she keeps her car smelling nicely of hay and horses and chocolate bar wrappers, this loutmobile smells of substance abuse and he doesn’t like change (okay, Steve doesn’t know about substance abuse, but he’s a dog and he doesn’t like the smell of the situation he’s being dragged towards).

Steve breaks free and reaches mum who holds him by the collar. Now he’s home. Now he knows what he’s supposed to do! He barks, then some. Add the growls at the base of the barks and suddenly the 40 kilo puppy is learning how to be a grown-up. Derring-do is using all her strength to hold him. She’s reasonably tall, and slight, but she works with horses and that means hauling hay bales and wheelbarrows full of whatever's needed. She's been prepared for bush fires, she's helped rescue horses from bush fire vicinities, and that takes muscle and brain. She’s strong enough – just.

“Come here, doggie,” says lout woman, getting agitated and scratching at the track marks on her arm as the boy louts move closer and back her up.

Derring-do tells her where to go. An older woman at another bowser is looking shocked (wouldn’t we all) and the fuel guy from inside has come to the door. A sensible derring-do girl knows trouble when it’s facing her. Steve is barking, and some. Derring-do is holding onto his collar, the tenacity in her nature coming to the fore. All that effort of getting up at 5.30am to sort out half-ton animals since the age of fourteen is instilled in her psyche. She knows that sometimes, you have to be tough and the only way you’ll be tough is if you’ve worked hard, mentally and physically, to get to that place, but it’s still an enormous shock to be confronted in this manner.

Lout woman didn’t get any of this. She got angry, using mature language, or in this case, immature. Adrenalin thickens derring-do’s throat, but she’s not giving up her dog. “I’ll let him go,” she tells lout woman. She said later that she had no intention at that moment of letting him go because she didn’t know what he would do. This had never happened to either of them before. He might go for lout woman, or he might charge her, knock her over and then run off down the busy road never to be seen again, or worse, cause an accident. She also said later that if there’d been a brick in her hand, she would probably have thrown it as they continued advancing on her. I would have done the same. "Hey! That's my daughter!"

Not happy

All this happened in seconds. Then, suddenly, the louts decided they’d had enough, got into their loutmobile and drove off without paying for the now nicked full tank of fuel.

Derring-do daughter asked fuel guy if she could take Steve inside to finish paying for her fuel, and retrieve her keys and bag.

Steve is now quiet and easily led inside by his mum where he’s treated like a hero and patted by still-quite-shocked older woman and by fuel guy who tells him he’s a good dog. Poor Steve reverts to puppy and pees (fuel guy didn’t mind), then rolls onto his back, staring up at mum with beseeching eyes that said, What the hell just happened? He didn’t know if he’d done something wrong or right. It was all too much.

Fuel guy looked at Steve, then turned to derring-do and said, “Every young woman should have one.” Then he told derring-do to put an extra ten bucks in her tank, on the house.

Steve hasn’t grown up yet; it’ll take another three or four years for him to reach doggie manhood. In that time, he’ll be treated with respect, love, and will be taught his manners and how to behave. But a warning to every lout with intent, don’t mess with my daughter because Steve will be at her side or on the back seat of her car, and believe me, once he’s reached full potential, an itty bitty lout, no matter how muscle-bound or aggressive, isn’t going to stop him from at least attempting to protect his mum.

And if Steve’s not there, or if you do harm anyway, you’ll then have to face me and all I can rain down on you.

There’s a lot of trouble out there for our puppies and our kids. It doesn’t always hide in tall grass and behind a clump of trees, or in alleyways and bad suburbs. It’s on the streets, everywhere, all neighbourhoods. Our good, hopefully mostly respectful, hard-working young people have to face much more than most of us did at their age. They’re partly used to it, because that’s what the world is like now, but there are shadows on all corners, even in daylight, that can still shock and hurt.

Steve got an extra doggie biscuit from me. Daughter got a hug, a proud pat on the shoulder for getting through a difficult situation, and a warning to keep her eyes peeled at all times, and to remember first and foremost that she is to run if the situation is looking real bad. Just run, kid, just run – as fast as you can, screaming all the way.

I say we teach our puppies and our kids about life, and also let life teach them, so that they’re at least reasonably prepared for the day they might have to run, shouting and creating as much fuss to get noticed as they can.

Jennie

The Turnaround Treasure Shop, book #4 in Jennie's bestselling Swallow's Fall series will be released 22nd May 2015. Will she be using an adaption of this tale on one of her next books? You bet!